Power Electricity Energy- Understanding the basics

Power Electricity Energy, whatever you like to call it, is fundamental to our world but it hasn't changed since creation of AC and still has rules. Today we look at the basic rules of power.

Power is made up of 3 flavours:

Active Power - Active power is commonly know as positive power and it's the good stuff, the stuff we use day to day to power our home. We measure it in Watts (W) or (kW).

Reactive Power - Reactive power is commonly know as negative power it's power we really don't want and is created by Electromagnetic Field (EMF). We measure it in Volt-Amps-Reactive (var) or (kvar).

Apparent Power - Apparent power is the sum of both active and reactive power. We measure it in Volt-Amps (VA) or (kVA). Apparent power is also the power that is metered in kW h it being the sum of both active and reactive power used in your home as 1W = 1 VA.

1000 W (watts) = 1 kW if you use a heater @ 2 kW for half an hour you use 1 kW h.

Items use active power - Kettle, Toaster, Lights, Heater.

Items use some to lots of reactive power - Water Pump, Induction hob, Vacuum cleaner. Anything with an electrical motor or transformer will create reactive power.

A grid tie solar inverter and Hybrid inverter are an appliance and measured in kW thus produces active power.

Any item that is a power generator - Transformer at the end of your road /up a pole, off grid inverter, petrol / diesel / hydro generator is measured in kVA thus produces active AND reactive power.

This will give you a good understanding for blogs to come.

Keep it - Fit For Purpose.